WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Lois Capps may be known as a persistent champion of the Earth and its natural resources, but this is one environmental battle she never expected to fight.

The Santa Barbara Democrat, generally regarded as a friend of the environmental movement and its causes, is fending off criticism from two environmental groups over a water project in Oxnard that she is pushing through Congress.

Capps and city officials say the project is needed to upgrade Oxnard's aging water system and to provide additional water to municipal and agricultural users throughout Ventura County.

But the Sierra Club and Earth Alert argue the expansion could eventually lead to development of agricultural land and other property outside the city and threaten environmental restoration efforts at Ormond Beach.

"We're trying to communicate to good people like Lois Capps that you need to look at the downside before you blindly support something like this," said Alan Sanders, conservation chairman of Los Padres chapter of the Sierra Club.

Capps' aides say the project is an environmentally sound approach to addressing the city's water needs and point out it has been endorsed by a dozen local agencies and community groups.

"I commend the city of Oxnard for trying to find innovative and effective ways of extending water supplies," the congresswoman said in a statement provided by her office.

Neither Sanders nor Janet Bridgers, president and founder of Earth Alert, questioned Capps' commitment to the environment. Both said they suspect her staff either had not done its homework or failed to fully inform her of the negative environmental consequences of the project.

"Some of these issues get to be very difficult in terms of decision making, and I understand it's difficult," Bridgers said, but "you can't allow unlimited development. We have to be very, very careful.''

Sanders offered a more pointed critique of Capps' involvement in the project. "The way I look at it," he said, "it's like people who sell arms to your enemies."

Federal funds sought

The project involves a comprehensive overhaul of Oxnard's water system. The first phase — expected to cost $55 million — includes a desalination plant that would provide additional water supplies for Oxnard and surrounding communities and a water recycling system that would treat domestic and industrial waste for agricultural use, such as irrigation.

The desalination plant is under construction and should be operational this August or September. Byproducts from the desalination process would be used to restore Ormond Beach wetlands. Construction on the water recycling facility should begin in 2009 or 2010.

The city hopes to eventually secure nearly $14 million in federal funds for the project. First, however, Congress must authorize the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to take part in the design and planning of the water-system expansion.

Capps has embraced the city's cause and filed a bill that, if approved, would give the federal agency the authorization it needs to get involved. The legislation already has been approved in the House and is likely to pass the Senate.

Capps said the project — known as the GREAT Program — would reduce agricultural and industrial consumption of groundwater, reduce the need for imported water and improve local water-quality reliability.

But Sanders and Bridgers contend federal lawmakers are pressing ahead without fully understanding the toll the water-system expansion could eventually take on nearby farmland and environmentally sensitive Ormond Beach.

Allowing Oxnard to expand its water system, Sanders argued, would enable the city to move ahead with two large development projects near Ormond Beach and open the door to possible annexation and development of other land in the unincorporated area outside the city.

One of the projects already in the works, the so-called SouthShore development, would bring 1,300 housing units, an elementary school, high school, commercial space and community and neighborhood parks north of Hueneme Road. Another project proposed for the south side of Hueneme Road calls for development of a business and light industrial park.

Sanders and Bridgers are concerned about the effects on Ormond Beach, a fragile wetland that is home to several endangered animal species, such as the California Least Tern. The small white bird feeds in shallow estuaries and nests in the sand dunes along Ormond Beach.

The developments would push people and their pets up to the edge of Ormond Beach, placing endangered species in further jeopardy and disrupting environmental restoration efforts under way for years, Sanders said. "It really kills everything we have worked for for over 20 years," he said.

Bridgers also expressed concern that the water-expansion project would lead to development of nearby agricultural land, which doesn't have the same Save Open-space and Agricultural Resources protections against encroachment as other farmland in the county.

"It's a tragedy that you watch roll out in front of your eyes," she said.

Not all environmentalists share Bridgers' and Sanders' concerns. The Saviers Road Design Team, a group that promotes the preservation and restoration of the Ormond Beach wetlands, sent a letter to Capps in July thanking her for supporting the water project.

"We've heard numerous presentations about what (the project) is about, how it will work and do not feel in any way that it would be a detriment to Ormond Beach," Shirley Godwin, the group's chairwoman, said this week. "In fact, we see it as a positive."

A prudent ... master plan'

Ken Ortega, Oxnard's public works director, also said Sanders' and Bridgers' concerns are unfounded.

The new plant and water recycling facility are part of "a prudent, well-thought-out master plan" to increase the system's capacity and guarantee the area will have water for years to come at a time when future water supplies for the entire state are in doubt, Ortega said.

Sanders said he brought his concerns to the attention of the congresswoman's staff last year, but "I don't think they either understood or accepted the concept that I was trying to present, which was that by authorizing this legislation, they were in effect supplying aid and comfort to our environmental enemies."

Capps' spokeswoman Emily Kryder, however, said the staff "took great pains to explain to Mr. Sanders that the nature and scope of Congresswoman Capps' legislation to authorize the GREAT Program would not have any bearing on these development projects."

Capps' office did not hear from Sanders again, "nor have any other constituents contacted our office to express concern about the project," Kryder said.

Sanders said he hopes to persuade the Senate to kill the legislation. Capps, however, said she would press on. "I'll be working to ensure my bill becomes law this year," she said.